The day after the exciting night at the hospital, Caroline and Jason still had to work their shifts at the inn.
Complained they did, but Jianmen seemed unempathetic to what happened to them. Still, even after hearing Jason’s story about his dislocated shoulder, which Jason made an honest effort to make sound worse.
But the silver lining of the day was that cold hearted boss Jianmen made another hearty lunch, with venison steak this time, additional Ling Gen roots and arcane berries although it was not the time for their bi weekly medicinal lunch.
“Boss, where were you last night?” halfway through lunch, Caroline stared at Jianmen, who was playing with two balls with one hand while sipping his tea - one of the balls seemed like it was made of metal and had a silver/platinum shine, the other was translucent and bright orange, with some flame patterns inside.
“I was here.” Jianmen put down his tea and put some food in his mouth, “You know, you guys were on break so the boss is handling all the shifts. Luckily no one came to eat.”
“We called you last night. You didn’t pick up.” Jason followed Caroline’s question, “Thought you never miss phone calls.”
“Well, sometimes I have a life as well. So last night I was living my ... life.” Jianmen’s answer was quite obviously hesitant.
“What were you doing though? We called you at least ten times.” Caroline then pressed on.
“I had a lady over, OK?” Jianmen’s answer almost made Jason spit out his food.
“Bullshit! That’s bullshit!” Caroline stood up and laughingly called Jianmen out, “We’ve been here for almost a year, you never had ladies over!”
“Or should I say, congrats Boss?” Jason winked at Jianmen and asked in a pretended gossipy voice.
“No, he’s lying.” Caroline sat back down, “What’s her name?”
“Josephine.”
“Bull, what’s her last name?”
“Wong.”
“Josephine Wong? Bullshit! I might have believed you if it was another name.” this time even Jason was calling Jianmen out.
“Wait, who’s Josephine Wong?” Caroline was confused.
“She’s an action star, kinda up and coming and already got her role in some high profile movies. And she happened to be shooting a movie in the bay.” Jason stared at Jianmen with an examining look, “So, Boss, you a fan?”
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“What’s this nonsense? I don’t have to explain myself to you! Cut it out and finish your lunch!” Jianmen stood up and took his tea away, “One more word, and I’ll double today’s training.”
“Okay Boss, we believe you.” Caroline blinked and continued with her venison steak.
“Alright, Boss, another unrelated question: do you know anything about people with superpowers?” Jason wisely switched topics to keep Jianmen at the table.
“Okay, I know a thing or two. As you two are my apprentices, I would be happy to impart my knowledge onto you.” Jianmen came back and sat down, looking like he was really willing to talk about this particular topic to erase the embarrassment from earlier.
“Well?” Caroline exchanged a look with Jason, then proceeded to ask: “What can you tell us about it? We had an encounter with a guy who can conjure up flame power and shoot fireballs from his hands. Is that some kind of ‘cultivation’ related thing?”
“Good question. The answer is not really, they are related but not the same thing.” Jianmen took a sip from his tea, then slowly yet clearly continued with his answer: “For us cultivators, the way of cultivating is a kind of training and study to understand certain kinds of powers in this world. The general terms were Xuanli or Lingli, they are Chinese words that roughly translate to ‘Arcane Power’, and ‘Spirit Power’. Through different cultivation methods, you will learn to harness and make use of this kind of power to strengthen your body, enhance your senses and mind power, and after reaching a certain stage, project energy onto the physical world.”
“Okay, sounds super complicated. ” Caroline scratched her head and said: “What does that have to do with people with super power?”
“Superpower is a kind of manifestation of Xuanli. ” Jianmen put his tea cup on the table, then pointed at the cup: “Like water, it can take the form of ice, liquid water, and vapor, or even turn into plasma when hot enough. Sometimes people in this world, through luck and some other circumstances can gain the ability to harness and utilize Xuanli in certain ways without having much understanding of what Xuanli is. Fireballs, per your example, is a kind of elemental skill that is relatively common, because producing heat and causing physical impact are two of the most basic ways of projecting Xuanli.”
“So, when we reached certain levels - or layers of cultivation, we’d be able to do that too? ” asked Jason in mild excitement and eagerness.
“Yeah, well, you’d be able to do some basics once you reached the second layer. And think bigger, Okay? Fireballs are just so uninspired.”
“Wait - are you saying that your training methods are better than everyone else’s?” Caroline slightly tilted her head and asked, “What’s with the sudden cockiness, Boss?”
“Hey, if you two can find me a trained witch or wizard, then I will have a friendly competition to see who’s better.” Jianmen laid back while shaking his finger, smiled at his students and stood up again, “Which will still be me. But! In the meantime, since you have both reached the first layer, you’ll be needing more training. So come to the basement tonight.”
“That’s not ominous at all. Training in an off-limits place?” Caroline watched as Jianmen left the diner and went upstairs straight towards his room.
“Well, maybe we weren’t ready before.” Jason shrugged.
“You know, this obedient and docile Asian son thing? Totally chick repellent.” Caroline looked into Jason’s eyes and said with a grin.
“Wow, geez, where did that come from?” Jason laid a hand on his chest as if he was just struck by a huge hammer.
“Nothing, just that your mom’s here to check on you again.” Caroline lightly patted on Jason’s shoulder and pointed to the direction of the inn’s lounge, then left the diner.